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ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Is Corean (Korean) Cinema the New HK Cinema?
t the peak of its Golden Era between the mid-80s and early-90s Hong Kong cinema was defending nearly half its domestic box office turf against Hollywood imports, thanks to an unusual concentration of mega-talents like John Woo, Chow Yun-Fat, Jackie Chan and Tsui Hark. No other film industry in the world had been able to claim that for a half century. What's more, some HK kung-fu and gangster flicks outdrew Hollywood thrillers in many international markets.
Corean heartthrob Won Bin
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Hollywood's strategy for coping with the HK threat? Simple and devastatingly effective -- buy up the biggest box-office draws. The result has been an epic shift: the top HK talents have been reduced mostly to coolie-ing on Hollywood formulaics while HK cinema has become a parched gulch with bounding tumbleweeds and half-hinged screen doors banging forlornly with every hot gust.
Corean American Shiri star Kim Yoon-jin
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But just as Asian Americans resigned themselves to having screen images hijacked by a remarkably Asian-unfriendly Hollywood, Corean cinema began throwing off heat. Beginning in the early 90s a hardy new generation of Corean filmmakers made themselves fixtures at the award ceremonies of Cannes, Venice and other international film festivals. By the turn of the century Corea's Pusan Film Festival emerged as Asia's premiere celluloid bazaar. But that was small potatoes, not enough to catch the notice of an industry whose real lifeblood is box office.
Then came Shiri (1999), Kang Jae-gyu's lovingly-wrought, haunting thriller about a deadly North Corean female terrorist who falls in love with exactly the wrong guy. It became the first domestic film in history to break the 2 million ticket mark for the Seoul metropolitan area (which accounts for about 25% of the Corean market), and went on to outgross Hollywood blockbusters like The Mummy, The Matrix, Titanic, Star Wars Episode One and Toy Story. Its $5 million budget is less than a tenth of what Hollywood spends at the drop of a dime but was considered a daring gamble. It paid off. Domestic box office receipts ultimately spiked past $60 million, ensuring an unexpected profit for the film's backer Samsung Entertainment -- and more importantly, whetting the appetites of investors for more "big-budget" projects.
Director Kang took pains to point out that Shiri's success was founded on a painstakingly crafted screenplay -- something few Corean directors had bothered with before then.
In 2000 and 2001 alone, two Corean films surpassed Shiri's box office benchmarks: Joint Security Area (DMZ military mystery/drama, 2000) and Friend (male-bonding, 2001). These blockbusters have stimulated a general upsurge of interest in domestic films. Films like Friend and My Sassy Girl (romantic comedy) outgrossed Hollywood megapics like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. They helped make Corea the only market in which domestic films captured over 50% of box office receipts, with Hollywood fare attracting 40%.
As the saga of Hong Kong cinema has shown, nothing yanks Hollywood's chain like being kicked at the box office. Major studios have begun importing Shiri, Musa (co-starring Zhang Zhiyi as a Ming princess rescued by Corean swordsmen) and other Corean films for limited U.S. theatrical release and video distribution. More significantly -- or ominously, depending on your perspective -- they have begun signing Corean talent. One is actress Shin Eun-kyung who starred in the popular comedy My Wife Is a Gangster (2001) which outgrossed Lord of the Rings. Shin will play the female lead opposite Andy Garcia. Miramax even paid $1.1 million for the remake rights to My Wife Is a Gangster.
Is Corean cinema the new Hong Kong cinema? Or will an Asian version of Hollywood ultimately emerge in Corea?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:07:18 PM)
Someone who knows--
How many Korean movies did you watch in the past 6 months? I bet I watched more than you did.
And for your information, i SAID THAT CHINESE POP CULTURE HAS BEEN AROUND KOREA FOR A LONG TIME. I never said, "Chinese pop-culture is superior to Korean culture thereby eliminating our inferior culture" like some fascinst minded people like to think.
And yes, I agree with you that there is a current Han-ryu trend not only in the sino-world, but also in other parts of asia including Japan, Malaysia, and Vietnam. I am merely pointing out that Cultural Diffusion is usually a TWO WAY STREET. TWO WAY! Here, let me say it again, so it will DIFFUSE into your brain--TWO WAY. Not one way, that's one too little. Two way. Three way is one too much, and four way is definitely too much. TWO WAY.
And I AGREE WITH YOU COMPLETELY, Korean films are promising and has leaped bounds in terms of technical expertise. But you have to be a deluded moron to think that Korea currently has technically skilled film staff who can produce certain types of films that Hong Kong is currently capable of producing--we lack experience--we are getting there however.
"Someone who knows" do yourself a favour and ask your mommy, "Mommy mommy, why did you make me such a fascist? Are Chinese people trying to take over the world and destroy us?" May be then, you can get over your infantile inferiority complex. Personally I'm proud of my ancestry.
AC Dropout-- it's true that bootleg copy makes Jacky Chan more well known. But what is also true is that having more of a profit motive urges movie production houses into investing more money to produce superior products. I mean, Jacky Chan is getting old, and admittedly, he is not the same old youthful Jacky who can do crazy stunts. Jet Li is also very old. Hong Kong is not known for producing fantastic special effects besides the well known mafia-gun shooting genre and wuxia genre. Hong Kong needs China to vigourously enforce anti-bootleg policy, in order for production companies to produce more competetive movies. Also giving more profits to foreign production companies, urges places like Hollywood to gear the movie for Chinese preferences. Korean movie Musa was specifically targetting the greater Chinese market share Korean movie producers were facing, that weren't simply there before.
ka
Monday, April 01, 2002 at 14:22:42 (PST)
To Ka,
Just to set the record straight, Chinese popular culture has NEVER been popular in Korea. It's true that most Koreans Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, but so does the rest of the world. Other than a few prominent actors, Koreans simply don't any Chinese entertainer. How would they know? Korean media has never shown Chinese dramas (not even Japanese dramas). In fact, most Koreans don't even know the definition of "Canto-pop". So sorry to disappoint you, but I can safely tell you that Chinese popular culture has not exactly captivated Koreans' attention.
Sonagi
Monday, April 01, 2002 at 11:52:57 (PST)
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